Fade Away
by Darbicus
Summary: Something is happening to the cursed ones of Nerima, and Ranmais going to feel the change as well


Fade Away  
  
Disclaimer: Ranma and company are trademark to Viz and Rumiko Takahashi. The are used without permission under the agreement thatthe author shall not seek to gain any financial benefit for using them.   
  
Chapter 1: Falling  
  
Ranma...was falling. He did not know how; he did not know why; he did not even know where it was he was falling from. All he could discern was that he was falling. He was not falling into a pit of starving cats, he was not falling into a spring of drowned maiden. He was falling into a void, a blackness, a substanceless mass.  
  
Apparently nothingness had a floor, and a hard one at that. Ranma landed on the black floor with a thud. He rubbed his back, checking his spine and ribs to make certain nothing was broken (again, he didn't know from where he was falling, which includes the height). After he was certain that he had suffered no injury, he got up and dusted himself off, at the same time checking out his surroundings. It certainly wasn't much, black as far as the eye could see. The only light came from an opening above his head, apparently where he had fallen from.  
  
"Hello," Ranma called out into the void, but the only answer that he heard was the answer of his own echo. He quickly disregarded trying to figure out where he was, and turned to finding a way out.  
  
He heard a slight shifting noise, and could hear something screeching on the black floor. He couldn't make it out.  
  
  
  
And it was on that note that Ranma Saotome awoke. He shook his head clear of cobwebs, and rubbed his forehead. 'A cold sweat?' he asked himself. Usually it took the dream about the Neko-ken or Kuno to do that to him. He glanced at the alarm clock at the far end of the room and saw that the glowing red numbersread 3:00 in the morning. Normally in circumstances like this he would go back to sleep, but something kept him from this. Something...different.  
  
He sighed as he got out of bed and slipped on his drawstring pants. He looked down at his father, currently a slumbering...and snoring...panda. 'That's different,' Ranma thought to himself, 'Pops usually doesn't sleep like that.'  
  
He opened the window, feeling the slight breeze on his face, and headed up towards the roof, to think.  
  
  
  
The sun was up before Ranma came down from the roof, rousing to the call of breakfast from Kasumi. Again he thought to himself, 'Pops didn't challenge me, what's wrong with him?' He walked into the dining room, dressed for school and ready to go. Before him was Akane, feeding P-Chan with a baby bottle.  
  
"Since when did the porkster let you do that," Ranma asked Akane, who just returned a menacing glare.   
  
"Since last night. I thought it would look cute and he seems to enjoy it for your information," Akane snapped back.  
  
'That Ryoga will do anything to get next to Akane, won't he.' Ranma mused to himself. He then noticed that P-Chan was not as uncomfortable as he usually was next to Akane's chest. In a line usually reserved for Akane herself, Ranma muttered under his breath, "Pervert."  
  
"WHAT WAS THAT RANMA," Akane yelled, having caught a syllable of what Ranma had said.  
  
"Nothing...nothing...I said nothing..." Ranma immediately declard, covering uphis tracks. He didn't feel like a fight today.   
  
"Where's Uncle Saotome," Kasumi asked, changing the subject.  
  
"Pops never got out of bed. Must be sick or something," Ranma said, as he began to eat his breakfast in the, as usual, vacumous mode. As he consumed the food laid out before him, he seemed to forget the fact that his father never got sick per say.  
  
"RANMA!" Akane called out, letting P-Chan down to the floor in a rush, "WE'RE GONNA BE LATE! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!" Ranma dropped his fork and followed Akane in the same rush. "Bye everyone," he called out, leaving Kasumi and Nabiki, speechless.  
  
"Doesn't he usually finish his food," Nabiki asked in a somewhat stunned tone. Kasumi didn't say anything, just hurried the flabbergasted Nabiki out the door and towards school.   
  
The reason Nabiki was stunned, was because anything out of the norm for Ranma when it comes to eating, well, even in Nerima that is weird.  
  
As Nabiki considered the possibilities, Kasumi walked up towards Ranma's room to collect the laundry and to check on the seemingly sick Mr. Saotome. She slid the door open, grabbed the laundry, and saw a still snoring panda in bed.  
  
'Funny,' Kasumi thought to herself, 'I've never known him to sleep like that willingly. Must be a leaky roof.' She made a mental note to calla roofer to check it out, before shutting the door quietly and heading downstairs. 


End file.
